It has been known to store blood in plastic bags in refrigerators, such as in the blood bank industry or in the case of leukocyte filtration. Presently, blood bags are sometimes stored on shelves which are slidably or fixedly mounted by drawer slides to the sides of a cabinet. It is sometimes desirable to hang anywhere from one to a large number of bags upright in the refrigerator. In the case of leukocyte bags, it is desirable to hang the leukocyte bags in the refrigerator from rails near the top of the cabinet, which drain through a tube to a filter and then into another bag in a drawer or at the bottom of the cabinet itself, which receives the filtered leukocyte.
It has also been known to suspend the bags from rails that are permanently fastened to the top or sides of the refrigerator cabinet top or sides. However, these systems are not easily converted to different heights and/or configurations, and it would be desirable to be able to have a configuration in a refrigerator that is easily height-adjustable and/or convertible between sliding shelves on a hanging rack.
Moreover, it would also be desirable to be able to easily adapt or reconfigure the arrangement inside a refrigerator cabinet between various configurations as needed. A disadvantage of present systems is that it is difficult to modify existing cabinets to accept new rails. For example, if drawer guides and/or pilaster strips for supporting shelves are to be moved or added into a cabinet (such as for example in an AABB temperature-specified 4-degrees C. cabinet) it is necessary to drill holes in the cabinet. Such drilling can generally only be performed by a sophisticated installer who knows where the electrical items and other components such as the copper refrigeration tubing are located within the cabinet walls so that damage to these components can be avoided. It would be desirable to be able to more commercially adapt a refrigerator to different configurations using existing drawer guides and/or pilaster strips.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus and method for conveniently providing and/or reconfiguring a support structure for supporting blood bags and/or leukocyte bags in refrigerator cabinets.